COOKEVILLE, Tenn. - The Putnam Pit has obtained copies of a Grand Jury indictment allegedly showing a change was made to the official document after it was signed by the judge, grand jury foreman and prosecutor. Christy Roberts, a witness in the case, is an employee in Criminal Court Clerk Lewis Coomer's office, where the documents are kept.
When the indictment was first distributed to lawyers, only one charge -- criminal trespass -- was listed. But by the time it got to court, a vandalism charge was added.
It has been widely reported this year that the FBI has been searching Coomer's records in a ticket-fixing scam involving Police Chief Bob Terry's pal Mike Gaw.
Twice on Tuesday, Aug. 3, Coomer's office called Putnam County Sheriff's deputies complaining of a disturbance. During the second call, abut 3 p.m., Cookeville police officers responded and threw Harris and Putnam Pit editor Geoff Davidian out of the public building, claiming there had been a disturbance. But Harris pointed out that the entire exchange had been captured on tape, then produced the recording device, causing the officers to high-tail it back to headquarters to fill out reports.
When Davidian later requested copies of the dispatcher records of the calls, Capt. Nathan Honeycutt waived the usual 25-cents-per-copy charge, stating, "I would do this for anyone in a situation where we could have handled it better."